CASE BRIEF

CASE NAME AND CASE LAW:

The Chamber of Tax Consultants & Ors vs. CBDT and Union of
India (Writ Petition No. 3343 of 2018/ PIL No. 144 of 2018)
FACTS:
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had issued a Central
Action Plan (CAP) for the financial year 2018-19 for the purposes
of setting out targets for tax collection, fixing timelines for disposal
of cases by income tax authorities and for awarding certain
reward points for such disposals. However, the Government had
been awarding those Commissioners of Income Tax Appeals
[CIT(A)s] who were passing orders favouring the Government.
The Chamber of Tax Consultants filed a public interest litigation
challenging the allocation of reward points to those CIT(A).
ISSUES:
Was the CBDT right in awarding rewards to CIT(A) for passing
the orders in favour of the Government?
Was the CBDT empowered to fix timelines for CIT(A) for
disposing-off the cases pending before them?
JUDGEMENT:
The Bombay High Court on 11 April, 2019 by its division bench of
Akil Kureshi and Sarang V. Kotwal, JJ. held that the CBDY’s act
of awarding the reward points to CIT(A) for passing such orders
would amount to an illegal prescription. As far as the validity of
fixing timelines for disposing-off the cases are concerned, the HC
referred to proviso to section 119(1) of the IT Act, 1961 which
prohibits CBDT from issuing any directions to dispose-off any
case in a particular manner.